(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicle recovery devices and more specifically to a device for recovering a vehicle floating horizontally, or nearly so, on the ocean surface.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Vehicle recovery devices of the type used to retrieve undersea vehicles such as weapons or targets on the ocean surface have taken several forms in the past. For example, various grabbing, clamping and scooping devices have been suspended from a hovering helicopter. Many of these devices require extensive maneuvering on the part of the helicopter pilot with a crewman in the cargo door giving directions to the pilot who is unable to see the vehicle during this maneuver. Wind, waves, and rotor downwash interfere with effective recovery operations in such a situation.
A snare pole has been operated by the crewman in the cargo door and used quite successfully for years in recovering light weight torpedoes and target drones. However, the recovery of heavier vehicles with such a snare pole has resulted in slipped nooses and broken snares which pose hazards to the helicopter as well as to the weapon or target device being recovered.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,530 issued in 1986 shows a prior art snare pole having a hook at one end with a noose provided in association with this hook. The noose is part of a longer line running through the snare pole allowing the noose to be pulled relative to the pole so as to snare a device to be recovered. Various devices have been proposed in the past for supporting a noose by means of a rigid pole so as to allow the operator to remotely ensnare or encircle a target device. U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,181 shows such a device.
Obviously one could put a person in the water for purposes of securing a conventional harness to a weapon or target for recovery purposes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,448,569 shows in FIG. 8 the result of such an approach to the problem.
As mentioned previously, a snare pole has been used for this purpose and U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,597 shows an early version of such a snare pole. Basically, the device of the '597 patent includes a pole to permit remote positioning of a noose loosely held in a hoop at the end of the pole. The noose is part of a line that is pulled relative to the pole by the operator so as to secure the noose around the object to be grasped. Another prior art approach is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,943 wherein a device is described that can be manipulated by two lines for recovery of a weapon or target floating vertically in the water. The device is lowered vertically down around the device to be recovered, and one line is hoisted so as to bring the weapon into a horizontal position. Once the device has been moved past the horizontal the other line can be used to in conjunction with the first line to lift the scooping device and the weapon or target in a generally horizontal orientation.
The present invention seeks to provide a device that can be conveniently manipulated from the helicopter without requiring deployment of a person or persons in the water.
The foregoing approaches to retrieval of a weapon or target floating in the ocean have not been found satisfactory in the recovery of relatively heavy horizontally floating vehicles. The single snare arrangement has proven unsatisfactory for the reason that it tends to slip off the device being recovered posing hazards to the helicopter, its crew, and to the weapon or target being recovered. What is needed is a method of creating a sort of sling around a relatively heavy vehicle to be recovered from the vantage point of the helicopter itself, that is, without the necessity for putting a person in the water to create a sling.